Forest Pictures!!

[Chessie]

The bottom pic is my house.

LOL jk! I wish!

 

[Nimue]

More than once I've thought there should be a picture collection specifically for fantasy writers. I can't tell you how many times I've gone looking for what a chestnut forest looks like, or a beech forest, or ... well, pretty much anything except conifers, which is about all we get here in the Intermountain West. And aspens.

For that matter, let's have a video library: wolves, foxes, elk, other animals.

And another one for flowers, complete with notes as to generally where they can be found.

Another lifetime's work, this.

This might not be the magical tome you're thinking of, but something popped up on a writing tumblr about visual dictionaries. A lot of the features would be superfluous, but they do provide visuals for a lot of objects, and names their parts, which can help one's specificity. A quick search didn't turn up anything that looked visually great to me--photos would be better than a lot of these illustrations--but maybe something along the line of a visual or photographic dictionary or encyclopedia might be worth a shot for you?

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

You guys are giving me an awful case of wanderlust. I look out my back window and see a back yard surrounded by neighbors and their houses and cars and fences and electric lights. I open my window and I hear traffic. I've lived in this place for almost half my life and I ache to leave. Heck, I wish I could even visit Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, etc etc...

Civilization is a spiritual desert for me.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^I agree. I think I'll relocate myself from civilization for awhile, and as for society? I've been avoiding it for most of my life.

 

[skip.knox]

But society is wonderful. It's humans, and we are fascinating creatures.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

But society is wonderful. It's humans, and we are fascinating creatures.

In very small, controlled doses

 

[ThinkerX]

You guys are giving me an awful case of wanderlust. I look out my back window and see a back yard surrounded by neighbors and their houses and cars and fences and electric lights. I open my window and I hear traffic. I've lived in this place for almost half my life and I ache to leave. Heck, I wish I could even visit Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, etc etc...

Civilization is a spiritual desert for me.

Texas or Arizona?

 

[Reaver]

Sure, and thanks for the suggestion. Alas, the flora and fauna here in the Intermountain West is more or less the same for, well, for hundreds of miles in every direction. Changes west of the Cascades, but that's still heavily coniferous. The stuff I want is European; just now, Mediterranean.

But I keep thinking a library of stuff would be a great resource for fantasy writers, especially for the more exotic-looking plants and animals. Yes, we can do a search and come up with it, but a central resource would be great. Just incredibly laborious to assemble.

Check with Black Dragon. Perhaps we can create a permanent forum here for a compendium that all members can contribute to.

****EDIT****

I'd also recommend suggesting such a great idea in the Suggestions and Feedback forum.

 

[skip.knox]

Possibly. A forum isn't quite the right venue; a wiki would work better. With images, we need to create searchable tags.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

We could start a MS wikia where we combine all our knowledge and research.

Or we could get together somehow and write a book of essential fantasy writer's knowledge

 

[skip.knox]

Can't be just a book because it needs to have lots of images plus video. Could be pictures and words if we just stick to trees, but then I start thinking about all the other millions of things in that place known as the Universe of Things.